New Flu Mutation Causes Severe Illness: See Latest MA Data

Close gatherings over the Thanksgiving holiday could cause an uptick in emergency room visits in Massachusetts due to a trio of respiratory illnesses that typically rise this time of year, as well as a new mutation of the common flu that doesn’t respond to this year’s flu shot.

Massachusetts emergency rooms typically see an increase in COVID-19, influenza and RSV rates during the holidays. This year’s flu season could be more serious due to a new Influenza H3N2 mutation known as “subclade K,” which is spreading in North America, including the United States.

Although the current flu vaccine offers protection against the H3N2 strain, it doesn’t cover subclade K, which hadn’t been identified when the vaccine was developed. The variant has mutated seven times, making H3N2 an even more serious threat, according to experts.

“Knowing that there’s a new mutated strain out there and H3N2 generally causes more severe disease is concerning,” Dr. Robert Hopkins Jr., medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s “Today” show.

See also: Gov. Healey Slams Trump, RFK Jr. As MA Calls For COVID-19 Vaccines For All Over 6 Months

The symptoms of the new strain are similar to those caused by common influenza, including fever, chills, body aches, headaches, extreme fatigue, congestion or runny nose, and coughing.

The symptoms come on suddenly. “It’s that hit-by-a-truck feeling,” Hopkins told “Today.”

This particular mutation is now dominant in many countries, including Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada, Forbes reported.

The CDC currently lists Influenza A H3N2 as the cause of most flu cases in the United States. The extent of the spread of the subclade K mutation in the United States because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t do any tracking for its FluView report during the recent government shutdown.

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The latest data from the CDC, last updated on Nov. 19, shows that acute respiratory illness rates overall are very low in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a new standing order authorizing qualified health personnel in local boards of health to administer the influenza vaccine to eligible individuals this respiratory virus season.

"In Massachusetts, we are making sure that people can get the vaccines they need and want to keep themselves and their families healthy,” Governor Maura Healey said in a media release.

“While President Trump and RFK Jr are turning their backs on public health, we are following the science," Healey said. "This new standing order will allow more qualified public health officials to administer the flu vaccine, which will make it easier for people to find a location in their community to get vaccinated.”

See also: ‘Razor Blade’ COVID-19 Variant Stratus Drives Up Cases In MA

Nationwide, acute respiratory illnesses remain at low or very low levels, according to the CDC; however, emergency room visits for RSV are increasing in many states in the South and Southeast. COVID-19 activity remains low, and seasonal flu activity is low nationally but increasing, according to the surveillance report.

Wastewater surveillance reports from XX monitoring sites will provide a clearer picture of COVID, flu and RSV rates in Massachusetts when the data is updated Friday.

On Sept. 25, it showed very low levels of COVID, flu and RSV.

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